Fala speech

Franklin D. Roosevelt with his dog Fala at his country house in Warm Springs, Georgia

The Fala speech was an election speech by the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the 1944 presidential election . He held it on September 23, 1944 in front of the transport workers union International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (now the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ). It was named after the president's dog at the time, the Scottish Terrier Fala .

In the months before, Roosevelt had been confronted by politicians of the Republican opposition with the trumped-up charge that he had forgotten Fala during a troop inspection tour on an Aleutian island and sent a destroyer of the United States Navy to pick him up. In one section of the speech, Roosevelt addressed the allegations, ironically highlighting how much such accusation would offend his thrifty dog. Incidentally, the speech was a campaign speech like many that received heavy criticism both because of the mention of the dog and because of defamation of the political opponent through allusions to Nazi politicians, but was also praised as a rhetorical masterpiece because of Fala's targeted use . It is undisputed that it inspired Richard Nixon to respond to the impending end of his political career on September 23, 1952 with the Checkers speech .

background

General Douglas MacArthur, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Admiral Chester Nimitz in Hawaii, July 26, 1944

Governor Thomas E. Dewey , the Republican challenger for president

In the late summer of 1944, two issues were high on the political agenda in the United States: the war and the election campaign. In Europe, as a theater of war, things were going well, with American troops landing in Normandy three months earlier and Paris being liberated four weeks ago. A comparable breakthrough was still pending in the Pacific War . In the presidential elections scheduled for November 7, 1944, Roosevelt sought a fourth term. At that time he had been in office longer than any of his predecessors and was still very popular with the population. His Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey focused his election campaign on attacks against Roosevelt's New Deal policies and called for a leaner state. Rumors have been circulating for some time about Roosevelt's poor health, which had not improved through his exhausting campaign.

As of July 15, Roosevelt had made a series of troop visits. The route first took the presidential train to the Pacific coast and then by ship to Hawaii and Alaska. On July 22nd, Roosevelt made a radio address from the platform of his platoon in San Diego , California accepting the Democratic Party's recent nomination for the November presidential election. The New York Times reported on it with two photos, one of which showed Roosevelt speaking with his son James and his wife. The second showed his dog Fala in front of a radio with the signature "Fala listens to his master". The journey then continued on board the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore to Hawaii, where they arrived on July 26th. Roosevelt met on land with Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur .

The journey continued to the naval aviation base on Adak Island (Aleutian Islands), where Roosevelt gave a speech to soldiers on August 3rd. There Roosevelt should have forgotten his dog, according to later attacks by some opposition politicians. On August 9th, the Baltimore arrived with the President in Alaska. For security reasons, press coverage of the trip was only fragmentary and delayed. On August 12, the New York Times casually reported that the president was on his way to the Aleutians “with Fala”. On the same day, Roosevelt held a radio address on board a destroyer in front of the naval base Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state, in which he explained the course of the voyage and his ideas for the further course of the war and the time thereafter. Roosevelt had written the speech himself, the speech was delivered in a violent wind on the deck of a destroyer, and it was the first time in more than a year that Roosevelt wore his greaves, which no longer fit properly because of his weight loss. In parts of the public and also among his followers, he gave the impression of an old, sick man, the speech was received as one of his worst even among his colleagues. Political friends were concerned, and the opposition already considered him "done".

Until September 1944, Roosevelt had taken no significant steps in the campaign. He had the advantage of the incumbent, and initially refrained from public appearances as an election campaigner. At the beginning of September, however, he changed his strategy to move away from the " Rose garden strategy " (German: "Rosengarten -strategy") held up to him, based on the rose garden of his picturesque country estate in Hyde Park, New York, and to conduct a real election campaign. Above all, the president wanted to counter rumors about his poor health with a vigorous campaign.

Accusation and official reaction

Harold Knutson , Minnesota State Representative to the House of Representatives

In August 1944, the Republican representative in had the House Clare Boothe Luce from Connecticut published two articles as a guest writer in a gossip column. In it she claimed that Admiral Nimitz had advised against the President's trip because the necessary security measures would unnecessarily burden the Air Force and Navy, and the trip would have no military benefit. On August 31, she was confronted in the House of Representatives by MP Michael J. Bradley from Pennsylvania, who wanted to have learned from the highest circles in the Navy that Luce's claim was "absolutely and clearly" untrue. After a brief, heated argument between Bradley and two Republican MPs, the floor was given to Republican Harold Knutson from Minnesota, who, as a MP, had always advocated a strictly isolationist stance in the USA:

“I read the two articles from the Connecticut lady. I think they are very cautious. There are a few things she could have said about the President's recent trip - or jaunt - to the Pacific, but she didn't. She has not informed the country that the president was accompanied by a flotilla of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that should have been fighting the Japs out in the far Pacific, nor has she commented on the rumor that Falla (sic!), That little one Scotch Terrier, accidentally left in the Aleutian Islands on the way back, and that they did not discover the puppy's absence before the company reached Seattle, and that it is said that a destroyer was sent a thousand miles to pick it up. "

The following day, Massachusetts Democratic MP John W. McCormack responded to Knutson's speech in plenary: “ Fala is the President's dog. A lot of people in this country have dogs that they love, and a lot of people admire the President for his affection for his dog ”(German:“ Fala is the President's dog. Many people in this country have dogs that they love , and many people admire the president for his affection for his dog ”). Citing the Chairman of the United Joint Chiefs of Staff , Admiral William D. Leahy , he continued: “ The story about the dog is made out of whole cloth. The dog was never lost. The dog was never sent for ”(German:“ There is nothing to the story. The dog was never lost. The dog was never picked up. ”)

Knutson replied, like all speeches addressed to the Speaker of the House:

Mr. Speaker, if there is no foundation to the doggie story, of course I am happy. The fact nevertheless remains that in a statement by Drew Pearson in his radio broadcast a week ago, when he said that the President's trip cost the American taxpayers 20,000,000, has not been challenged or denied .

"Mr. Chairman, if the dog story lacks a foundation I am of course happy. Still, the fact remains that a statement by Drew Pearson on his radio show a week ago that the president's excursion cost the American taxpayer $ 20 million has not been contested. "

The White House immediately denied the allegations. Knutson stated on September 1 that, knowing that the president was fond of animals, he had been misled into believing the allegations. Nevertheless, he repeated his attack in mid-September and asked Admiral Leahy for information about whether the dog had been picked up by plane. In the House of Representatives he continued:

“The dog has often, and with good reason, been called man's best friend. It would not have occurred to any good American, president or commander in chief to send a plane to rescue his dog. Without hesitation, the President sent out not just one plane, but thousands of planes and our boys to save the British Kingdom and Russian Communism. He couldn't do without a plane to save his best friend. "

The Republican press took the opportunity and discussed Knutson's claims at length. The New York Times commented on the incident that the "brawls" between Republican and Democratic MPs included "personalities" like Roosevelt, his wife and Fala.

The "Fala Speech"

Even before his departure for the Second Québec Conference in mid-September, Roosevelt had commissioned his speechwriters Samuel I. Rosenman and Robert E. Sherwood to speak at the congress of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (now the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ), the powerful transport workers' union, issued on September 23. While attending the conference, Roosevelt thought about the content of the speech himself and sent his ideas to Rosenman and Sherwood. There was also the first draft of the passage about Fala, which he described to Rosenman as a "happy thought" .

On September 23, 1944, Roosevelt publicly responded to the charges against him. The union's chairman, Daniel J. Tobin , had been designated by Roosevelt as Minister of Labor the previous year and had turned down the office. Still, for Roosevelt after the New Deal , the event was a get-together with friends. Roosevelt began his speech with allusions to his alleged state of health, in order to subsequently defend his labor market policy and armaments policy:

“So now we're together again, after four years. And what were those years! You know that I've actually gotten four years older. Some people seem upset about this. In fact, math tells us that millions of Americans are more than eleven years older than when we started clearing away the trash that was thrown at our feet in 1933.

We all know that certain people who habitually disparage workers' accomplishments, or even attack the workers as unpatriotic, hold on to it for three years and six months. But then, for a strange reason, they change their tone - every four years, just before election day. When it comes to voting, they discover their love for the workers, and they worry about protecting the workers from their old friends.

[...]

But perhaps the most ridiculous campaign flight is to claim that my government failed to prepare for the impending war. I don't even think that Goebbels would have tried something like that. Because it never occurred to him that American voters might have forgotten how Republicans in Congress and elsewhere made every attempt to block and thwart government actions to warn the people and prepare the nation. Many of those who opposed every draft bill in our defense policy still control the Republican Party - look at the names - and if they won the elections in the fall they would get control of the party and Congress. "

There followed the short passage in which Roosevelt mentioned his dog Fala and responded to the Republican attacks in connection with his dog, and from which the speech owes its name. Immediately after this little more than a minute speech, Roosevelt turned back to political issues:

“These Republican leaders did not stop at attacking me, my wife and my sons. No, that's not all, now it's against my little dog, Fala. Of course, I don't resent attacks, any more than my family, but Fala resents them. You know Fala is a Scot. When Fala learned that the Republican novelists in Congress and elsewhere had concocted a story that I forgot about him in the Aleutian Islands and sent a destroyer to find him at the expense of the taxpayer of two or three or eight or twenty million dollars , his Scottish soul was badly hit. He hasn't been the same dog since then. I'm used to hearing vicious lies about me that I'm old, worm-eaten, or portraying myself as indispensable. But I think I have the right to be angry with and contradicting defamatory claims about my dog.

Well we know the old sayings. The people of this country know the past too well to be fooled. Too much is at stake for that. There are tasks ahead of us that must be carried out with the determination, ability, intelligence and dedication that have brought us so far on the road to victory. It is our task to victoriously end this most terrible war of all as soon as possible with the least possible loss of life. We have the task of creating a world order that ensures that peace, once achieved, is not disturbed again. And at home we have the task of converting the war economy back into a peace economy.

We faced these tasks of peace before, almost a generation ago. They were botched by a Republican government. That can't happen now. We won't let that happen this time.

[...] "

In terms of content and form, the speech was a typical campaign speech tailored to the specific audience. Roosevelt was well aware that the charges against him came from a backbencher and not from the ranks of his challenger. Nonetheless, he tried to create the impression that the attacks had been publicized by the Republican party leadership and, if not by Dewey himself, then by his campaign staff.

Samuel I. Rosenman suggested that no one could have recited the short passage on Fala better than Roosevelt. Robert E. Sherwood regretted that he could not accept the recognition that is often and inappropriately given to him for the great allusion to Fala. Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins , pointed out that Roosevelt had perfectly countered the filthy and vicious attacks on individuals that were being secretly spread. They no longer posed a threat to his presidency. In allusion to Dewey as the owner of a Great Dane , the speech was described as an argument "between a big man with a little dog and a little man with a big dog". The speech was seen by political commentators as the turning point in the campaign. Roosevelt had demonstrated to his supporters as well as his opponents that he was still fit for a fourth term. Accordingly, the speech led to a strong mobilization of democratic voters, who were now entered on the electoral roll.

But there was also criticism, primarily of the allusions to Hitler and Goebbels, which were felt to be inappropriate in the dispute with a political opponent. Farmers suffering from economic hardship asked for concrete support, not “animal stories”. And it has been criticized as inappropriate for a commander in chief of the armed forces to come out in public with follies like the humanized portrayal of a dog during the war . For the remainder of the campaign, Fala was featured in public no less frequently. After the Fala speech and the corresponding reactions, however, he was only the well-behaved family dog of the Roosevelts and the companion of the President.

Aftermath

It is undisputed that the “Fala speech” inspired Richard Nixon to give his “Checkers speech” eight years later, in great distress. At the time, he had been attacked as a Republican candidate for the office of vice president for the "Nixon Fund," into which political supporters paid money to finance his political activities. Such a fund was not illegal, but it did subject Nixon to charges of addiction and was about to be fired by presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower . On September 23, 1952, exactly eight years after the "Fala Speech," Nixon gave a televised address that went down in history as the "Checkers Speech". Nixon defended the by no means secret fund, and presented himself as a man of modest means but sincere patriot. He had received one gift, which he would not give back under any circumstances: a small cocker spaniel from Texas, which his 6-year-old daughter had Patricia named Checkers. The speech is still considered a rhetorical masterpiece to this day, brought Nixon an overwhelming public support, and Eisenhower not only stuck to Nixon, but won the elections with him.

For decades, the claim that Roosevelt had Fala picked up by warship was occasionally repeated by representatives of the far right. In 1974 a magazine that it claims to be "conservative" asked readers a series of questions about American presidents, including "Who was the first president to send a destroyer hundreds of miles just to pick up his dog?" "Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a destroyer to pick up his dog Fala in Alaska." The speeches of Roosevelt and Nixon are occasionally mentioned in political reporting to this day.

Web links

Commons : Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944 - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Commons : Fala (dog) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Internet Archive: Collection of film recordings from the holdings of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, including: The President's Tour of Inspection to the Pacific, July - August 1944 , a report on the trip that gave rise to the Fala speech; Wochenschaubericht, 1943 , a short sequence showing Fala playing with Roosevelt, all accessed on January 4, 2014.
FDR, Nixon and the Politics of Pooches , a September 23, 2013 article on the Fala speech, with Fala's photo in front of a radio, published in the New York Times after the radio address on July 22, 1944, accessed January 4, 2014 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b without author: Democrats in '44 feared for FDR . In: The Knickerbocker News , Albany, New York, August 27, 1948 Online PDF 970 kB, accessed January 4, 2014.
↑ Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , pp. 192-195.
^ Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address Broadcast from a Naval Base on the Pacific Coast to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. July 20, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 201-206 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.
^ Franklin D. Roosevelt: Informal, Extemporaneous Remarks at Naval Air Station, Adak, Alaska. August 3, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 213-216 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Helena Pycior: The public and private lives of “first dogs” , pp. 194–196.
^ Franklin D. Roosevelt: The President Reviews His Pacific Trip - Radio Address at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington. August 12, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 216-228 Online , accessed January 4, 2014 .; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.
↑ Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , Ph. D. dissertation, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 2005, pp. 175-178 Online , accessed January 5, 2014.
↑ Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , p. 242.
↑ Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , pp. 29-30
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , p. 30
^ Without author: That Dog in the White House . In: The Nation , September 23, 1944, p. 341, ISSN 0027-8378 .
^ ^A ^b ^c Franklin D. Roosevelt: "I Think I Have a Right to Resent, to Object to Libelous Statements About My Dog" - Address at Dinner of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Washington, DC September 23, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 284-293 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.
↑ ^a ^b without author: 20 Questions About Dick Nixon . In: Human Events , Volume 17, No. 38, September 22, 1960, ISSN 0018-7194 , pp. 441-444.
↑ Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , p. 31
↑ Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , pp. 208-211.
↑ Kevin P. Phillips: A New Board Game (Article heading Who was the first ...? ). In: Human Events , Volume 34, No. 9, March 2, 1974, ISSN 0018-7194 , p. 14.

Translated texts in English

↑ Speech by MP Knutson on August 31, 1944: I read the two articles written by the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Luce]. I thought they were very temperate. There were some things she might have said in connection with the President "s recent trip - or should I say jaunt - to the Pacific that she refrained from telling. She did not inform the Country that the President was accompanied by a flotilla of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that should have been out in the far Pacific fighting the Japs. Neither did she comment upon the rumor that Falla [sic!], that little Scotty dog, had been inadvertently left behind at the Aleutians on the return trip, and that they did not discover the absence of the little doggie until the party reached Seattle, and that it is rumored that a destroyer was sent a thousand miles to fetch him.
↑ Speech by MP Knutson in mid-September 1944: “ 'The dog,' declared Representative Tootson (sic!), 'Has often been referred to, and with reason, as man's best friend. No good American, no good President, no good Commander-in-Chief would have flinched and sending a plane to rescue his dog even though he ran the risk of adverse criticism. Without hesitation the President sent not one but thousands of our planes and our boys to save the British Empire and Russian communism. He could not spare one plane to rescue his best friend. “The allusion to British and Russians must be seen against the background of Knutsons' radical isolationist stance. Rescuing a dog, the British Empire, or the Russian Communists all seemed unacceptable to him.

[Knickerbocker_News_1948-1] without author: Democrats in '44 feared for FDR . In: The Knickerbocker News , Albany, New York, August 27, 1948 Online PDF 970 kB, accessed January 4, 2014.

[Davis_2005_192-2] Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , pp. 192-195.

[Roosevelt_1944_San_Diego_speech-3] Franklin D. Roosevelt: Address Broadcast from a Naval Base on the Pacific Coast to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. July 20, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 201-206 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.

[Roosevelt_1944_Adak_speech-4] Franklin D. Roosevelt: Informal, Extemporaneous Remarks at Naval Air Station, Adak, Alaska. August 3, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 213-216 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.

[Pycior_2010_194-5] Helena Pycior: The public and private lives of “first dogs” , pp. 194–196.

[Roosevelt_1944_Bremerton_speech-6] Franklin D. Roosevelt: The President Reviews His Pacific Trip - Radio Address at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington. August 12, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 216-228 Online , accessed January 4, 2014 .; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.

[Davis_2005_175-7] Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , Ph. D. dissertation, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 2005, pp. 175-178 Online , accessed January 5, 2014.

[Davis_2005_242-8] Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , p. 242.

[Stuhler_1990_2930-9] Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , pp. 29-30

[Stuhler_1990_30-10] Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , p. 30

[TN_1944_09_23-12] Without author: That Dog in the White House . In: The Nation , September 23, 1944, p. 341, ISSN 0027-8378 .

[Roosevelt_1944_Fala_speech-14] A ^b ^c Franklin D. Roosevelt: "I Think I Have a Right to Resent, to Object to Libelous Statements About My Dog" - Address at Dinner of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Washington, DC September 23, 1944 . In: Samuel I. Rosenman: The public papers and addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1944-45 volume , Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, NY 1950, pp. 284-293 Online , accessed January 4, 2014; The American Presidency Project , accessed January 4, 2014.

[HE_1960-15] without author: 20 Questions About Dick Nixon . In: Human Events , Volume 17, No. 38, September 22, 1960, ISSN 0018-7194 , pp. 441-444.

[Stuhler_1990_31-16] Barbara Stuhler: A Minnesota footnote to the 1944 presidential election , p. 31

[Davis_2005_208-17] Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944 , pp. 208-211.

[HE_1974-18] Kevin P. Phillips: A New Board Game (Article heading Who was the first ...? ). In: Human Events , Volume 34, No. 9, March 2, 1974, ISSN 0018-7194 , p. 14.

[11] Speech by MP Knutson on August 31, 1944: I read the two articles written by the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Luce]. I thought they were very temperate. There were some things she might have said in connection with the President "s recent trip - or should I say jaunt - to the Pacific that she refrained from telling. She did not inform the Country that the President was accompanied by a flotilla of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers that should have been out in the far Pacific fighting the Japs. Neither did she comment upon the rumor that Falla [sic!], that little Scotty dog, had been inadvertently left behind at the Aleutians on the return trip, and that they did not discover the absence of the little doggie until the party reached Seattle, and that it is rumored that a destroyer was sent a thousand miles to fetch him.

[13] Speech by MP Knutson in mid-September 1944: “ 'The dog,' declared Representative Tootson (sic!), 'Has often been referred to, and with reason, as man's best friend. No good American, no good President, no good Commander-in-Chief would have flinched and sending a plane to rescue his dog even though he ran the risk of adverse criticism. Without hesitation the President sent not one but thousands of our planes and our boys to save the British Empire and Russian communism. He could not spare one plane to rescue his best friend. “The allusion to British and Russians must be seen against the background of Knutsons' radical isolationist stance. Rescuing a dog, the British Empire, or the Russian Communists all seemed unacceptable to him.